Labels

Thursday, September 13, 2012

The Asian street food revolution has spread to Buena Vista with Shokudo, a stylish outpost of sushi, dim sum and sake. After shuttering World Resource Cafe, owner Yoko Takarada transformed the seedy convenience store spot into a bright, airy space with an inviting backyard patio.
The menu includes belly-filling small plates and noodle bowls from Korea, China, Japan, Tibet, The Philippines and Thailand.The menu offers an extensive array of appetizers, six types of dumplings, a handful of buns and eight specialty sushi rolls. Drinks include 15 sakes as well as Thai, Japanese and Korean beer. Prices are neighborhood-friendly with most maki rolls $9, noodle and rice dishes $14-$18. A daily $9 lunch special is a nice touch.

Start with thin-skinned har-go shrimp dumplings, crispy pot-stickers stuffed with turkey, or the Tibetan "momo," filled with curried potato in a tomato dipping sauce. Ramen - the wallet-friendly dish of impoverished college students - gets the gourmet treatment here with a broth made of simmered beef, chicken and pork bones and topped with braised pork belly or shrimp tempura along with scallions, and tamago, half a hard-boiled egg cooked in soy sauce.

Another slurp-worthy dish is the green tea soba noodles with seared duck breast in a dashi broth. The ahi tuna poke, a cone of diced fish with macadamia nuts and avocado, comes with home made taro chips. Korean offerings include a bibimbap rice hot pot with spinach and shiitake mushrooms as well as a Soon du bu, a spicy Korean soup with beef, oyster and shrimp. Korean "banchan," or small side dishes include picked radish, sauteed spinach and kimichi-marinated radish.
Desserts include a green tea matcha custard presented in a tea cup and a coconut cake topped brimming with shaved coconut.

All in all it's nice to see the Buena Vista 'hood diversifying with walle-friendly spots, it's just too bad it's at the expense of greedy landlords on Lincoln Road pushing out local businesses. But if the trend continues (as it has for the last few years), you'll need to venture over the causeway for good food in casual environments.